Tag Archives: Mr. Las Vegas

If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Wayne Newton, known as “Mr. Las Vegas,” then Saturday is your last chance to see him at the Tropicana.

Wayne Newton’s show “Once Before I Go” at the Tropicana’s Tiffany Theater ends April 24. The show is backed by full orchestra and celebrates the iconic performer’s 50-year career entertaining Strip-goers with jokes; banjo, fiddle and guitar skills; and tunes such as “Danke Schoen” and “Great Balls of Fire,” during which he’s been known to play the piano with his toes a la Jerry Lee Lewis.

Classic photos and videos, as well as Newton’s signature “meet and greets” with the audience, add to the fun. Ticket prices range from $69.99–$168.99 VIP; the latter includes a “golden circle” seat, meet and greet with Wayne Newton plus photo taken with Wayne.

The Tropicana plans to remodel the showroom after his exit, but comedian Paul Rodriguez will have a month’s engagement in the interim starting May 3, with a special Cinco de Mayo show in Spanish.

Long dubbed “Mr. Las Vegas,” veteran entertainer Wayne Newton has landed his first reality TV show, which will focus on the women who run his life, both on and off stage.

The iconic singer who has performed for over 40 years and in over 30,000 solo shows in Las Vegas will front the new show on American cable channel WeTV. Release timing is being worked out.

Tentatively titled, “Wayne’s World,” the show will feature his wife and attorney Kathleen McCrone, her sister Trisha McCrone and Newton’s publicist and his 7-year-old daughter, Lauren. Even his mother-in-law, Marilyn, will make an appearance – she runs the star’s merchandise empire.

The announcement of the show comes after a super bad start to 2010 for Newton – his wife filed court papers in February in a bid to keep her assets separate from those of her financially-troubled husband, and his adopted daughter, Erin, suffered liver, kidney and respiratory failure and fell into a coma after giving birth to the star’s grandchild.

The health crisis forced Newton to pull out of a series of lucrative engagements, so he could be close to his sick daughter, who is now on the road to recovery.

Las Vegas police descended upon his Sin City ranch, while he was at his daughter’s bedside at the end of February, to try to collect court judgments relating to a bank loan Newton reportedly reneged on.

Newton has blamed years of bad money management by his team of advisors for his financial troubles.

He also has been accused of failing to pay storage fees to keep his private jet in a hanger at the Oakland County International Airport in Michigan.

Newton has had a long history of financial problems. Newton famously declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy after becoming mired in roughly $20 million in debt about 18 years ago and the IRS said in 2005 that Newton owed $1.8 million in back taxes and penalties.

Then, earlier this month it was learned that Newton abandoned his plane at the Oakland County International Airport three years ago and now owes more than $60,000 in storage fees and now faces lawsuits.

Also this month, a civil lawsuit was filed in Clark County District Court by Bruton Smith, chairman and founder of Speedway Motorsports Inc. Smith is seeking to seize Newton’s home for repayment of a $3.35 million loan.

Smith alleges Newton and his wife intentionally defrauded him and misrepresented their ability to repay the loan.

A lawsuit was also filed last summer for nonpayment of $32,000 worth of hay for his horses.

To top that off (if that’s possible), yesterday a large posse of Clark County sheriff’s process servers and moving vans showed up in the morning at Newton’s 38-acre ranch at Pecos and Sunset roads in Las Vegas, trying to serve the entertainer with judgment documents and take his property pertaining to a civil lawsuit brought by his former pilot, Monty Ward.

Clark County District Judge Michelle Leavitt in September ordered Newton to pay Ward about $455,000 in back wages with interest accruing at the rate of roughly $129 per day. Court records show Newton paid less than $4,000 to Ward as of September.

A similar action by Ward is simultaneously being pursued in U.S. District Court.

Ward filed a federal breach-of-contract lawsuit in 2006 against Newton and a Nevada company called Desert Eagle.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants asked Ward around February 2003 to work as their private pilot for the next decade. He was to start at a minimum annual salary of $92,000, plus medical and dental benefits, according to the complaint.

“In reliance on assurances of continued employment and payment from defendants for a minimum of 10 years, Ward left his employment of 16 years as a captain and pilot with Horizon Airlines and became defendants’ private pilot,” the lawsuit alleges.

Then, around August 2005, according to the document, Newton and Desert Eagle decided to discontinue using their private aircraft. The lawsuit claims Ward sent the defendants invoices for his services and benefits for periods after they decided to discontinue using their private aircraft, but despite repeated demands, they refused to pay him.

In January 2009, then-U.S. District Judge Brian Sandoval ruled that Newton and Desert Eagle had breached a settlement agreement they had reached with Ward, and Sandoval entered a judgment of about $455,000 against the defendants.

Late last month, a writ of execution was issued in the case by the U.S. District Court clerk. The writ directed the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce the judgment, which, with interest, has grown to more than $500,000.

This Tuesday, Ward filed a notice of his intention to take Newton’s deposition on March 4 in Las Vegas.

Yesterday, deputies left Newton’s compound without being able to properly serve him The documents were returned to District Court marked “unexecuted,” and no further service will be attempted pending civil court actions, police said.

The Wayne Newton saga is hardly over. If anything, it will be rapidly ramping up in the next few months. Please stay tuned to Las Vegas Backstage Access for developments.

“Mr. Las Vegas” Wayne Newtonhas reportedly abandoned his mouldy plane languishing at a Detroit airport, racking up bills of more than $60,000, but the good news is he’s asking Virginia legislators to grant state recognition to his Indian tribe.

The Virginia-born entertainer has appealed to the House Rules Committee to officially recognize the Patawomeck, or Potomac, tribe, of which he is a member.

The recognition allows the group to be known as a tribe but does not grant sovereignty.

Newton and Patawomeck Chief Robert Green said it would validate their identity and help them protect sacred burial grounds.

Wayne Newton is telling his fans “Danke Schoen” after 50 years in Las Vegas and hinting that his latest run in Las Vegas could be his last. But the singer synonymous with Sin City says he’s leaving himself an opening in case he wants to perform after April.

The man known throughout the world as “Mr. Las Vegas” says retirement is possible, but that decision won’t hinge on the success of his new show that opened at the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Instead, he says, it depends on whether his itch to keep working conflicts with his desire to spend more time with his 7-year-old daughter.

“I’m enjoying my second daughter in a way that I didn’t get a chance to do the first time around,” Newton, 67, told The Associated Press. The decision that I make, whether or not to perform or retire, will pretty much be based on that.”

Newton’s current Tropicana show, “Once Before I Go” took 2½ months to write and is presented as a live memoir of Newton’s life and his career, with never-before-shared insights from Newton about personal episodes along the way.

“It’s challenging to keep it entertaining,” Newton said. “And that was my first prerequisite.”

Newton has told his audience that it was tough for him to pick highlight songs from a career that includes 165 records.

“It would be impossible for me to pick songs from all of them even if I remembered them, which I don’t,” Newton quipped.

Newton arrived in Las Vegas in 1959, when a two-week tryout at the Fremont Hotel & Casino turned into lounge act of six shows per night, six nights a week for nearly a year. The crooner earned national fame after a 1962 television appearance on “The Jackie Gleason Show,” which led to many more singing and acting gigs on TV and in film.

He also headlined at several casinos throughout Sin City, including the New Frontier, which hosted entertainers including Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan and Siegfried & Roy over its 65 years. The casino was imploded in 2007.

“I’ve been working since I was four,” Newton said. “There really has not been a time in my life that I don’t remember working.”

“If I still feel like I have something to give when this particular show is over, then I’ll make the decision to probably curtail work a little bit but not give it up totally,” he told the Associated Press. “If I don’t feel that way at the end of this, then I’ll probably hang it up.”

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